Sep. 1, 2013

Before he started hawking Tough Actin’ Tinactin, John Madden lent his expertise and likeness to a certain video game title. Fast forward to the present and that video game franchise is king of the virtual football mountaintop as it celebrates its silver anniversary in “Madden NFL 25.”

For its 25th rodeo, the franchise tries to keep things fresh beyond a basic roster update via tweaks and other added features. At the top of the list are big improvements to the running game and ball-carrying mechanics through a feature called “Run Free.” In addition to more than 30 new animations, Run Free also adds more than 20 precision moves that essentially power up variations of your spins, jukes, trucks and hurdles — improvements that are especially noticeable among more athletic players such as Nevada alum Colin Kaepernick, for example. Speaking of Nevada, option play upgrades that include the vaunted Pistol offense now provide even more options on the ground. Add improved blocking by the AI and running with the ball becomes a much more viable option this time around, especially against online foes who concentrate on shutting your passing attack.

In addition to uniforms, players also can customize players, rosters and playbooks, which can be shared with other players. Custom playbooks can now be used online in “Connected Franchise” mode, which also allows you to play the role of player, coach and owner. Overall, the changes may not satisfy folks clamoring for Madden to reinvent its proverbial wheel. For most, however, “Madden 25” continues to be a solid virtual pigskin option.

For the most part, USB thumb drives are meant to be used not seen. Once in a while, though, you get drives that definitely attract attention. Take Mimoco, which continues its penchant for using licensed characters with its Chewbacca Mimobot USB drive.

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The connector cap sports a tight fit to prevent accidental exposure. Strategically located on Chewbacca’s, uh, bottom is an orange indicator light to let you know if the device is in use. The design itself is something that Stars Wars fans should find adorable. The coup de grace for this particular Mimobot, however, is on Chewbacca’s back. Turn this drive around and you’ll find an illustrated rendition of a dismantled C-3PO that pays homage to a scene from Cloud City in “Stars Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.” I’m sure the poor droid thought the hairy beast would be the end of him.

Capacity comes in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB or 128GB with pricing starting at $24.95 for the 8GB version and reaching $129.95 for the 128GB variant. The thumb drive is also available in both USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 speeds. Average read and write speeds for Mimoco USB 2.0 thumb drives is 33 MB/s — which is pretty good — and 8 MB/s, respectively. Several sequential tests via the CrystalDiskMark utility, though, revealed read speeds up to 22.92 MB/s and write speeds up to 11.79 MB/s. Overall, it’s still a solid thumb drive if you don’t mind the price.

If the impromptu flash mobs that congregate around airport outlets are any indication, getting juice for portable devices while traveling is kind of a big deal. It’s especially important for someone such as yours truly, given all the hardware I lug around during my trips.

This brings us to Snow Lizard’s SLPower 7 portable battery. Designed to work with popular devices such as smartphones and tablets, the SLPower 7 can charge practically any device that can be powered through a USB connection. Unlike most of its competitors, however, the SLPower 7 comes with two USB connector slots instead of just one. This is great for folks who travel with multiple devices such as a personal phone and a work phone, for example, because you can charge two devices at the same time. The SLPower 7’s multitasking abilities work especially well with its high capacity of 7,000 milliamp-hours (mAh). To put that in context, the iPhone 4S and 5 use batteries a little over 1,400 mAh, the Samsung Galaxy S3 is 2,100 mAh and an iPad 2 is just a smidgen below 7,000 mAh. During a trip, I was able to charge my iPhone 4s twice, my Galaxy S3 once and an MP3 player once before the SLPower 7 ran out of juice. Charging speed for devices is also quite fast.

Downsides include a 7-hour charge for the battery itself, so just plug it overnight. It also charges newer iPad models with bigger batteries just halfway. Otherwise, it gets the job done.